Return migration and life course: The example of returning graduates to Bulgaria

该项目调查了在德国获得学位的保加利亚毕业生的移民决定。在保加利亚复杂的经济、人口和社会转型过程中，以前的正常传记概念已经失去了价值。在向后工业和后现代社会过渡的背景下，移徙决定被概念化为避免个人风险的战略的一部分。在德国发生的那些移民经历可以被理解为跨国社会和文化资本，因此可以影响进一步的移民决定，这些决定嵌入在传记段落中。该项目的目的是审查从德国大学毕业后是留在德国还是返回保加利亚的决定。该理论框架旨在将移徙理论和社会变革理论结合起来，弥合人类流动性概念化和社会发展之间的差距。研究设计侧重于传记方法的实施，侧重于回顾移民的生命历程。通过采用跨国研究的视角，研究设计遵循了这样的假设，即移民的生命历程决定嵌入到一个跨国社会空间中，从而整合了比非移民更广泛的选择。然而，移民也面临着对其决定结果的不确定性，保加利亚的变革背景和整个欧洲社会变革的结果甚至加强了这一点。对回返移徙的关注较少被理解为一个规范性组成部分，但指出了研究过程中观察的方向。作为研究的结果，形成了一个类型学，展示了在传记阶段、个性方面、制度规则和更深层次的语境因素下决策策略的多样性。这项研究侧重于移民的个人视角，从而能够更好地理解是留下来、返回还是编写跨国传记的决定。

The project examines migratory decisions of Bulgarian graduates who have earned a degree in Germany. In the course of complex economic, demographic and societal transformation processes in Bulgaria, former concepts of a normal biography have lost their value. In the context of the transition to a post-industrial and post-modern society, migration decisions are conceptualized as part of a strategy to avoid individual risks. Those migratory experiences that have been made in Germany can be understood as transnational social and cultural capital and can thus influence further migratory decisions, which are embedded in biographical passages. The aim of the project is to examine decisions whether to stay in Germany or to return to Bulgaria after having graduated from a German university. The theoretical frame aims to combine migration theory and theories of societal change, bridging the gap between conceptualizations of human mobility and societal development. The research design focuses on the implementation of biographical approaches, focusing on the life course of migrants in retrospect. By taking a transnational research perspective, the research design follows the hypothesis that life course decisions of migrants are embedded in a transnational social space, thus integrating a broader variety of options than for non-migrants. However, also migrants are faced with uncertainty concerning the outcomes of their decisions, which are even reinforced by the transformative context in Bulgaria and the results of societal change throughout Europe. The focus on return migration is less understood as a normative component, but points to the direction of observation in the course of research. As a result of the research a typology is developed, showing the variety of decision making strategies in the context of biographical stages, personality aspects, institutional regulations and further contextual factors. The research focuses on the individual perspective of migrants, thus enabling to develop a better understanding of decisions whether to stay, to return or to develop a transnational biography.